The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 30's / 40's Trucks - Script Tailgate

Quick question for the collective genious of the site. I've seen late 30's and early to mid 40's with script tailgates. Mine is plain.

Was the script tailgate an option? Was is standard? Was it limited to a particular model?

Please, someone enlighten me!

I believe the script tailgate was standard on the 39 & 40 pickups, 41 to 46 plain.

JiMerit is correct. 34-38 were also plain.

GMC had script all the way through.

Thanks alot! Now I need to find another part for my truck! :hammering:

Seriously, thanks for the info, I am now wondering what year the tailgate for mine is off of. If the box on mine is original I'd assume the tailgate is off a 38, but now I guess I'll need to measure the bed width and see if it is the wider 40 and 41-46 bed.

48 1/2 inches if it is a 40 or 41-46.

I've got a repop'd tail gate.. it fits and looks nice.

According to Jim Carter\'s ID page the '39 and '40 had script lettering on the tailgate. The script was discontinued on the '41. Carter states that all other years between '34 and 46 had no script but GMC always used script on their '36 - '46 tailgates.

Well I did a little measurement confirming what I suspected after posting the original post and reading some responses.

My 39 bed is 48-1/2" wide without the script tailgate. I would make the assumption at this point that the bed and tailgate are from a 41-46 truck.

That leads to a few more questions. My rear fenders are about 12" wide. As I recall they come from the 40-46 series as well. Correct?

Finally that leads to another question. How do I tell the year of the frame? Does the 37-39 share the same frame and the 40-46 share frames too? :confused:

All of a sudden my mostly "original" truck doesn't seem so original any more!

Thanks for all the great help.

39AZ: I know what you mean. I thought I was getting a pretty much original 37 until I started running down all the #'s. Turned out that Johnny Cash could have made his "One Piece at a Time" Caddilac about my 37 pickup! My tailgate is plain but for mine I could order the tailgate with or without. To keep it at least looking original I went with plain......now I'm thinking about adding the Chevrolet decal to give it a little different look.

39 and 40 have the same wheelbase, 41-46 is a little bit longer. Somehow they stretched the cab about 2 inches in 1941... makes for longer running boards. The beds changed from 39 to 40 as well as the dash. If your 39 has one rectangular speedo cluster... you would actually have a 1940 model year. I believe the guages are identicle for the 37-39 model years.

I know mine is a mostly a '39 due to the dash, the smaller top bar in the grille, no parking lights on the front fenders and the VIN number. 37-39 are identical on the guages and 40-46 share a dash as well.

My question at this point is, "Are their any ways to tell a 39 3/4 ton frame from a 40 3/4 ton frame?"

Did the frame remain the same and the box just get a little wider in 40?

I've looked at the online resto pack and I'll need to measure the wheelbase tonight to see if the frame is at least the right length.

I can email you any measurements and pictures you want of my 1940 3/4 ton long bed gmc. I do not have a bed for it. I would wager the frames are the same, but I've lost to many wagers lately.

Thanks for the offer of help, I'd appreciate it. The wheelbase on mine is the correct 123-3/4". I think I'll post this under a different topic to find out some more frame specific info.